HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON FLOOD CONTROL SEVENTIETH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON THE CONTROL OF THE DESTRUCTIVE FLOOD WATERS McKeown, Hon. Tom D___ Morrow, Hon. John_. 2524 2156 2091, 2127, 2155, 2166, 2185, 2234, 2277, 2347, 2355, 2404, 2434, 2455, 2727 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Thursday, January 5, 1928. The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m., pursuant to adjournment of December 19, 1927, Hon. Frank R. Reid (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. The first witness we will hear this morning will be Colonel Potter, president of the Mississippi River Commission. STATEMENT OF COL. CHARLES L. POTTER, PRESIDENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER COMMISSION The CHAIRMAN. Will you please give your name? Colonel POTTER. Col. Charles L. Potter, Corps of Engineers, United States Army. The CHAIRMAN. Give your present post-office address. Colonel POTTER. St. Louis, Mo. The CHAIRMAN. Colonel Potter, for the purposes of the record, I wish you would give a short statement of your service. Colonel POTTER. I graduated from West Point in 1886. Vacancies in the engineers being scarce at that time, I went into the Fifth Cavalry and served there nearly a year. I was transferred to the Engineers in 1887. After going through the engineering school in 1889, my education was supposed to be complete. Since that time The CHAIRMAN. I did not quite get that. You said "supposed to be complete." Colonel POTTER. I said that having gone through the engineers' school my education was supposed to be complete and I went out on Government works. Since that time I have served 16 years on the Mississippi River, 10 years on the Pacific coast, mostly in building fortifications, which makes 26 years; two years in the Philippines, during the Spanish War-the Philippine insurrection. The rest of my service was scattered in short tours at different points. The CHAIRMAN. You say you were 16 years on the Mississippi River? Colonel POTTER. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. What period did that cover? Colonel POTTER. It covered various periods. I was district engineer in Memphis from 1900-that is, I was under the commission. I was secretary of the commission two years, from 1910 to 1912. I was in St. Paul not under the commission but on the Mississippi River from 1912 to 1915. I then came back as president of the commission in March, 1920, and it will be eight years next March that I have been president of the commission. The CHAIRMAN. I wish you would be sure to give us all the years you have been on the Mississippi River. Colonel POTTER. Well, I spent three years at Memphis 2017 |